February 22, 2005
IPA tastes great!
I tried the IPA today for the first time, it tastes good! So far the
brewing is a complete success, hope the trend continues! Now it's
about time to start up my Kolsh beer!
While flying today we heard a "pop" sound from somewhere then soon
after Tom had to land. It turned out the sound was from Tom's plane,
one of the cells in his battery pack blew open!
Flying at Bald Peak
At the end of a busy weekend after hanging in Seattle, going to the beach
I went flying with Matt at Bald Peak ( map) in the late evening with a 10
-15mph E wind. Unfortunately he left his transmitter on again !! so his
battery was dead when we went to grab it to fly.
Strangely bald peak isn't bald. (I wonder where the parasailers launch
here?) Inside the park is very tough for slope gliding, there are
trees nearly circling the parking loop so you can't see the horizon or
get good lift directly from the parking area. There was a big rotor
which makes flying pretty sketchy until you get some altitude to clear
the tree line, good thing I had an electric motor. The lift was pretty
smooth once you got out in front of the trees enough, and enough to
keep my heavy electric plane up with no throttle.. but at that point
the plane is pretty far away and would be pretty difficult to recover.
I didn't drive around much to look for better spots since it was so
late, there are probably much better parts of the park to fly from
(near the radio towers maybe?). There was a beautiful gentle sloping
green grass field a mile or two before you get to the park that looks
perfect from both E and W winds (I think), I think we will try this
spot next time.
February 19, 2005
Gmail invites?
If you ever wanted a gmail invitaiton I have about 50 to give away, so just
let me know or post a comment to this blog entry...
Weekend in Seattle
We're spending the weekend in Seattle with our friends Autumn &
Michael, what a fun place! We had some homemade bagels for breakfast
too.... and an excellent dinner party too!
February 17, 2005
Frequency site for Hillsboro site
I put up a Hillsboro Frequency website for our flying location in
Hillsboro to help minimize frequency conflicts in the future. It's got
some handy resource links at the bottom that we have collected
over the past few weeks..
Tim flies (longer today)
Had some good combat today, Glenn joined us for some pretty intense
3-man combat. Also Tim got some good flights (and crashes) in today
with his plane - it was a nice day out for flying at lunch.
February 16, 2005
Maiden flight of Tim's Wing
Tim's wing had it's maiden flight today, on an incredibly windy day!
There's some pictures and video in the gallery if you want a look at the flight..... and the crash!
NiCd Battery charging
It's geeky, but if you're charging your R/C batteries and wondering
about all the rumors flying about how you should be charging them this
is a good site to help dispel the rumors:
http://www.repairfaq.org/ELE/F_NiCd_Battery.html
February 15, 2005
Combat!
After some great flying last week I flew Monday and got completely
taken out twice by Matt! I blew a servo gear on impact with his plane
the second time I think and the plane just fell out of the sky. I
spent a couple hours working on it / improving it so I'm ready to fly
again.
Matt was happy after taking me out twice in the same day, but now I'm
out for revenge! It's been cold lately so I guess it will be served
cold too. I'm going to have to start watching for his attacks from now
on....
February 13, 2005
Valentines at the Beach
We had a beautiful trip to Waldport, OR at the beach this weekend
staying at the Cliff House Bed & Breakfast. What a wonderful place, I'd go back in a minute!
The beach provided some nice pictures too:
February 12, 2005
Pic of the plane
I meant to post this photo last time.. but I also put up some
pictures from flying the other day to my gallery. I've even
got some of the movies up there.. so check it out!
Flying!
The plane is flying well, here are my first pictures. I forgot what a
rush it is to fly, especially flying combat!
February 10, 2005
The plane is done!
I flew the plane for the first time yesterday, it flew great on the
first toss and is quite easy to fly! I'll post some pictures when I
get around to remembering my camera one day, but it's decked out in a
very patriotic color scheme -- all I need are some stars!
Now begins the combat...
February 03, 2005
Plane Status
I got nearly all the structural tape on the plane, now I just need to
install the motor mount and cover the airplane with the colored tape.
And get a battery/charger setup... sigh. Decisions decisions.
Time to start working on Becca's wedding website too, I'm falling
behind on that & need to get it done this weekend!
February 01, 2005
Plane progress
I made a little more progress on the plane tonight, the radio gear is
installed and the taping has started! I ran the pushrods under the
skin of the plane, hopefully they will be ligher and a little less
vunerable to attack during combat.
Electronically I'm a little concerned that when I crank up the
throttle quickly the speed control faults out and needs a "reboot" but
hopefully this is because I'm using a power supply not the real
battery. The real battery (if it ever gets in at Tammies) should
supply well over an Amp which is what I maxed out with this "lab" type
power supply. Apparently Matt's plane (identical) does nearly the same
thing in unusual circumstances. I'm sure it can be fixed by changing
the threshold voltage on the speed control, but that might make
figuring out when the battery is dead and leaving power for the servos
on the landing difficult...
